This application is based on Japanese Patent Application No. 11-189681 filed on Jul. 2, 1999, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a control technology for specific consumables used in color printers. More specifically, this invention relates to a recording technology adapted for the control of consumables such as, for example, ink for inkjet color printers and toner for electrophotographic color printers.
2. Description of Related Art
In a multi-color printer, recording agents of plural colors are used as consumables. For example, inks of plural colors are used in an inkjet color printer and toners of plural colors are used in an electrophotographic color printer.
In these color printers, however, when they are used, such a situation often arises where only a recording agent, such as ink or toner, of a certain specific color is used excessively and the printer cannot print that particular color when it is really needed because of the lack of such color agent.
Moreover, in this case, if only the recording agent of that particular color is replenished, unbalance in an image may result from a difference in durability between the replenished new recording agent and unreplenished other recording agents.
This is an object of this invention to provide a control technology for consumables of color printers that can prevent the excessive consumption of only a recording agent of a certain specific color.
According to an aspect of the invention, a controller of a printer that forms a multi-color image by using recording agents of plural colors comprises detection means for detecting the residual amount of recording agent of each color, calculation means for calculating a biased consumption of recording agent based on the detected residual amount of recording agent of each color, and color conversion means for replacing a color of a recording agent corresponding to the minimum residual amount in the detected residual amount of recording agent of each color with another color when the calculated biased consumption of recording agent is not less than a first prescribed value.
According to another aspect of the invention, a printer that forms a multi-color image by using recording agents of plural colors comprises detection means for detecting the residual amount of recording agent of each color, calculation means for calculating a biased consumption of recording agent based on the detected residual amount of recording agent of each color, and color conversion means for replacing a color of a recording agent corresponding to the minimum residual amount in the detected residual amount of recording agent of each color with another color when the calculated biased consumption of recording agent is not less than a first prescribed value.
According to still another aspect of the invention, a recording method for controlling a specific consumables used for a controller of a printer or a printer that forms a multi-color image by using recording agents of plural colors as consumables comprises the steps of detecting the residual amount of recording agent of each color, calculating a biased consumption of recording agent based on the detected residual amount of recording agent of each color, and replacing a color of a recording agent corresponding to the minimum residual amount in the detected residual amount of recording agent of each color with another color when the calculated biased consumption-of recording agent is not less than a first prescribed value.
According to a further aspect of the invention, a computer program product for enabling a computer to execute a recording method for controlling a specific consumables used for a controller of a printer or a printer that forms a multi-color image by using recording agents of plural colors as consumables comprises the controls of detecting the residual amount of recording agent of each color, calculating a biased consumption of recording agent based on the detected residual amount of recording agent of each color, and replacing a color of a recording agent corresponding to the minimum residual amount in the detected residual amount of recording agent of each color with another color when the calculated biased consumption of recording agent is not less than a first prescribed value.